The toilet paper travails continue in the People’s Collectivist Utopia of Venezuela. First socialism created a shortage of toilet paper. The authorities responded by confiscating toilet paper stockpiles. Apparently the stolen stockpiles have been depleted, because now the goons running what could be a very wealthy country have taken over toilet paper factories:

A chronic shortage of toilet paper has forced the Venezualan government to send troops to a factory to make sure stocks are fairly distributed.

The South American country has been beset by a lack of consumer goods due to inflation and tough trading conditions.

It has led President Nicolas Maduro to order a national price regulator to take over loo roll plants in the capital Caracas to verify production processes and distribution, before placing them under the watch of the National Guard.

The “tough trading conditions” are imposed by the authoritarian government, which has created predictable shortages by reacting to inflation with price controls.

Venezuelans float on a sea of oil. If they rejected envy-driven left-wing economics, they could be wiping their bottoms on fine linen. But as it is, they cannot even provide themselves with toilet paper.

At least Venezuela serves as a cautionary example of what happens when corrupt fools attempt to replace the invisible hand of the free market with the fist of coercion. But then, the past century is choked with these examples. Socialism is like cancer; knowing that it is horrible doesn’t mean we can make it go away.

A very good lesson for the Sheeple of Amerika to be paying attention to. Of course, they won’t. You will not find one of them who thinks it could happen here, and to them. That’s why it may very well happen here, and to them.

That’s what government intervention does – it creates shortages of the things people do want and a glut of things people don’t want. The government is a bunch of people who could never secure real day jobs trying to manage the lives of millions of other people better than they can even manage their own. Obviously, this approach is predestined for failure.